CRNS’ first seminar of the year was held in a very apt venue, Recyke-a-bike’s premises in Stirling, and saw representatives from the CRNS membership come together, along with other bike projects and Zero Waste Scotland personnel, to network and engage on matters pertinent to their organisations. The hot topic for discussion was very much bike tyre recycling, namely the rubber tyres and inner tubes. We heard from Angela Barron, CEO at Recyke-a-bike and Nina Borcard, Development Officer at Bike for Good about the scale of the problem they are encountering, which was then reinforced by delegates around the table. Our guests speakers Russ Taylor and Richard Lawrence, Directors at Velorim Ltd had travelled up from England to attend and present at the seminar on their proposed business model and future plans for a bike tyre recycling facility in the UK. . They commenced by highlighting the fact that there are no facilities, worldwide, that recycle bicycle tyres at scale, then went on to explain their planned reprocessing methods which would result in bike tyre reuse and supporting the circular economy. A breakout session ensued whereby in smaller groups the problem and proposed solution was discussed and debated. Overall a very stimulating and thought provoking gathering and for those that would like to access the presentations, they can be viewed by clicking on the links below: Bike for Good Velorim Ltd

CRNS is looking to rebrand and also to relaunch our website. This will help us to better communicate our vision for a circular economy in Scotland. We are asking organisations with experience in this area to submit bids for this work by 12 noon on Wednesday 6 March 2019. Information regarding this work is provided in the tender document.

Download the full report here. Since the inception of CRNS in 2004, the organisation and the membership have evolved with a continually changing political and policy landscape. The Scottish Government’s 2015 circular economy strategy entitled “Making Things Last” and the current policy work being done around a Scottish deposit and return system are highly relevant to our sector. The circular economy is all about people and how they interact with their environment, communities and the economy. This is also at the very heart of what CRNS members are doing within their own context. With this in mind, surveying the CRNS membership and quantifying their resource management activities is key to inform our collective efforts going forward. We are pleased to report that we have collated data on all of our full member organisations. A big thank-you goes out to all our members for co-operating with the survey as we acknowledge that for many organisations just taking time out to complete a survey can be challenging. Thanks to your help, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date information we have ever collected on the membership. We are sharing this report widely as we want this information to be used by our sector to demonstrate the collective strength and value of our activities within Scotland’s wider resource management landscape. At CRNS we have already used these survey results to inform our strategic planning for the next three years and we will continue to use this information to inform our programme of activity and policy work. This will in turn, connect to Scotland’s evolving circular economy strategy. The collective activities and strength of the CRNS membership will define, in part, the future ambitions of a truly circular economy